Letters from the Pastor

On Monday, March 27, heaven welcomed Dr. Peter James “Jim” Flamming through its gates.  Dr. Flamming was Pastor Emeritus of Richmond’s First Baptist Church (FBC), serving from 1983 to 2006.  I can imagine Shirley, his beloved wife, and their son, Dave,...

Dear Church Family, During the Sundays of Lent, we have been in a message series entitled “Seeing Through the Eyes of Love.”  I have also been leading a video-based adult Bible study from the same theme on Wednesday nights, using materials from Cooperative...

Dear Church Family, Three years ago today, we held our very first livestreamed worship service due to the Covid-19 pandemic.  I can vividly remember working with our staff and key lay leaders in those early days.  We were one of the very first congregations...

Dear Church Family, Every so often, I take a slow walk around the perimeter of our church’s seven-acre campus.  I usually start behind the playground on Ashburn Rd. and walk toward St. Edward Catholic Church.  Next, I take a right onto Dolfield and then a...

Dear Church Family, Eight years ago today I began to serve as your pastor.  I preached my trial sermon in late January 2015 and the congregation subsequently voted to call me as pastor. Isabella was in the second semester of fifth grade at the time, and she was...

Dear Church Family, Here’s an inspirational story from the recent week’s sermon clipping floor.  Perhaps it will be helpful as we reflect on the big picture in life and in our church.  Russell Schweickart (far right in photo) was an astronaut who flew the...

On Valentine’s Day, our church sponsored a “Free Coffee Drive-Thru” as an outreach to the community. It was spearheaded by the Outreach Implementation Team as an opportunity to share God’s love with our neighbors. There are too many people to list, but I wanted to say...

Dear Church Family, A unified church pleases God! In Psalm 133, the psalmist reminds us of this truth. The following is from The Message paraphrase by Eugene Peterson: 1-3 How wonderful, how beautiful, when brothers and sisters get along! It’s like costly anointing...

Dear Church Family, At each quarterly congregational meeting, ministerial staff members bring brief reports to provide an overview of their ministry activity over the previous quarter. On Sunday January 29, 2023, I presented the following thematic report to offer...

Dear HRBC Family, In their classic book, Lead Like Jesus, Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges offer four domains of leading like Jesus: heart, head, hands, and habits. They state that the internal domains, the motivations of our hearts and the leadership perspective of our...